Conquer

Alright, so last Sunday we started a brand new series that may have my favorite title in the history of the titles that we've ever had for series.

It's just called So Much Blood.

That's the name of the series that we're in.

So if you're a first timer, welcome.

Welcome.

I'm so glad you're here.

We're talking about blood, and not just a little bit of blood.

A lot of blood.

And if you're like, mm, gross, that's okay.

Um, here's what we're doing.

Let me give you the context in case you're new.

We are spending our year going through the entire story of the Bible.

So what we've done is we've split the story of Scripture into 14 different series, and we're just going through those, averaging about three weeks per.

And as you can tell, we we've covered some ground, but we have a lot left to go, and by the time the year is done, we will have gone through the entire story of the Bible, and we're not skipping any of it, even the hard parts.

And if you've ever read through the Bible or tried to, you've probably gotten to a few stories fairly early on where you're like, wow, this is pretty intense.

There's a lot of stories early in the Old Testament, especially by the time you get to the Israelites escaping Egypt, and then you have the book of Joshua.

Joshua is the one who takes over from Moses after Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt.

And then there's the book of Judges and the kings and all these stories.

And a lot of the stories are stories of war, bloodshed, violence, and it can be really hard for us to reconcile those things, those concepts, to this loving Jesus that we serve and we sing about, this Prince of Peace.

And what we what we've talked about, we talked about last week, is that it's important for us, number one, to have a mature faith.

Even if you're very new in your faith with Jesus, or you're just kind of figuring that out.

I imagine that no one would say, Yeah, I think I might want to follow Jesus one day, but if I do, I just want to have like the basic knowledge.

I don't want to, I don't want to be like, I don't really want to know anything.

I want, I just want to be, I want to be like an ignorant follower of Jesus.

That's what I'm really going for.

I've never met someone who says that.

I know so many people who will even share, I have a hunger to know God better.

I have a hunger to understand scripture, but there's parts of it that I just don't understand.

I have a hard time with.

And if you've ever, if you've ever been there or if you can relate to that, that's one of the reasons that it's so important for us as a church not to skip the hard stuff.

Because these stories of war and violence and bloodshed in the Bible, they're not blemishes on God's resume.

They're not these moments that God looks back on and goes, like, ooh, I really wish I could go back and do that differently.

They teach us very important things about God, about the nature of the world.

And as we talked about last week, they really show us pictures of Jesus and the necessity of Jesus and his sacrifice for us.

So they help us see him more clearly.

These are really important stories.

And admittedly, some sometimes, as we're teaching through sections of the Bible, um, every message is just insanely practical.

And like a you can take something right now and apply it to your life tomorrow, and things feel a little bit better, everything gets a little bit smoother if you apply these truths, and and actually next week and for the next five or six weeks after that, every message is going to be super practical.

And sometimes we get to concepts that are not as practical as they are sort of big picture.

There's certain concepts that we need to understand to have a mature faith, and they're big picture concepts.

If we don't understand these things, we get very confused, and it's hard for us to understand God in our own day-to-day lives.

And so this is one of those Sundays.

This is a big picture Sunday.

But I trust the Holy Spirit, because God's awesome and He teaches all of us, that God will give you something really practical for you, I hope.

And so today we're gonna talk about conquest.

Conquest.

I said last week we're gonna look at a few words that help us go through this whole so much blood thing.

Last week was consecration.

We talked about the idea of holiness and atonement.

And if these are words you're like, what do those mean?

You can listen to the message from last Sunday.

I don't want to rehash all of it, but but if you read the Bible, there's a lot of animal sacrifices in the Old Testament, a lot of a lot of lambs, a lot of a lot of sheep.

A lot of sheep lose their lives.

I'm just gonna go ahead and spoil that for you.

If you're an animal lover and you happen to love sheep the most, just you know, caution, just be cautious.

All right?

It might be traumatic.

But as we talked about all of those animal sacrifices, we're we're we're God foreshadowing the necessity for Jesus' sacrifice.

And we talked about the seriousness of sin.

And today we're gonna talk about the reality of evil.

And our word for today is conquest.

As you start to read through these stories in the Bible right away, you see stories of conquest.

And so we'll pick up in the book of Joshua.

As I said, Joshua is the man who takes over for Moses.

He's leading the people of Israel, not just out of Egypt, but now into the promised land.

This land that God promised them centuries ago will belong to them.

The problem with the land, though, is it's occupied.

And it's not just occupied by random people, these aren't like nice neighbors who are like, welcome to the neighborhood.

No, no, these are these are oppressive, incredibly violent and barbaric nation states.

And they occupy the land, and there's there's no coexistence possible.

And Joshua has this task of leading the people into this place, and this is a dangerous place, this is a scary place unless God is with them.

And that's why if you ever read the book of Joshua, the very first things that God says to Joshua when he takes over, it's do not be afraid.

He says it over and over again, do not be afraid.

He wouldn't have said that if Joshua wasn't afraid.

And he says, I'll be with you.

And the very first battle that we see, the very first conquest is of the city called Jericho.

We get there in Joshua chapter 6, it says, Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites.

Joshua 6 · chapter mention

And this is a God thing in and of itself.

They have no reason to be afraid of the Israelites.

The Israelites are a nomadic tribe.

They're not warriors, they're not an army.

Jericho is a fortified city.

But they're afraid of the Israelites, so they've shut the gates.

It says, No one was allowed to go out or in, but the Lord said to Joshua, I have given you Jericho, the king, and all its strong warriors.

You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day for six days.

Seven priests will walk ahead of the ark, each carrying a ram's horn.

This ark was basically a relic.

It was this symbol that they had of God's presence being with them.

He said, On the seventh day, you're to march around the town seven times, with the priest blowing the horns, and when you hear the priests, give one long blast of the ram's horns, have all the people shout as loud as they can, and then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the town.

And that's exactly what happens.

Joshua chapter 6, verse 15 through 21 explains the reality of that.

Joshua 6:15–21

It says, On the seventh day, the Israelites got up at dawn and marched around the town as they had done before, but this time they went around the town seven times.

The seventh time around, as the priests sounded the long blast on their horns, Joshua commanded the people, Shout, for the Lord has given you the town.

Jericho and everything in it must be completely destroyed as an offering to the Lord.

Only Rahab the prostitute and the others in her house will be spared, for she protected our spies.

Do not take any of the things set apart for destruction, or you yourselves will be completely destroyed, and you will be bring trouble on the camp of Israel.

Everything made from silver, gold, bronze, or iron is sacred to the Lord and must be brought brought into his treasury.

When the people heard the sound of the ram's horns, they shouted as loud as they could, and suddenly the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the town and captured it.

They completely destroyed everything in it with their swords, men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, goats, and donkeys.

So there you go.

You know, it's funny as a child, I started going to church in fourth grade.

We didn't go to church before fourth grade, at least I didn't, maybe a couple times.

But we moved into a new house, and our neighbor invited us to come to his church, and we did, and we liked it, and I've told this story before.

He got arrested for embezzling money like two weeks later, never saw him again.

Um, but I wouldn't be a Christian if not for a criminal inviting me to his church.

So I love that.

I think that's great.

And and I remember going as a you know, I'm a fourth grade boy.

I'm like nine years old, and I'm sitting and I'm hearing these stories of of war and stories like this, and I just think these are awesome, right?

Because as a nine-year-old, I'm like, yeah, let's go.

This is awesome.

And then as you get a little older, certain lines hit you a little harder.

You're like, oh, just kill them all.

And you go, mmm.

Oh, okay.

How do I how do I reconcile that?

And that's what we're gonna deal with today.

Now, again, our our word is conquer, it's conquest today.

And to help us get into that mindset, I want to ask you a question.

Have you ever had to conquer something?

Because I want us to step into the mindset of these people so we can understand where they're at.

Have you ever actually had to conquer something or someone?

Maybe you've had to conquer a fear, maybe you've had an actual enemy that you've had to come against at some point in your life.

I was thinking hard this last week about a situation in my life where I actually had something to conquer, and and actually last summer, I have like the perfect example, at least for me.

So last summer we had an infestation of something in our front yard called a cicada killer.

Have you guys ever seen cicada killers?

Anyone, anyone familiar with those?

Okay.

I'm gonna show you a picture.

Um, that's a cicada killer.

They are very large, like wasp hornet-looking things.

And what had happened is the summer before, two years ago, we had like a few in our yard.

And they're not they're not super aggressive.

They're large, so they're more intimidating to look at than you have to be like afraid of them, but I just sort of left them alone.

What I didn't realize is two summers ago they were building nests.

They burrow into the ground and and they lay eggs.

And so last summer, like early June, I walk outside one day and it it's like it was insane.

There's 30, 40 just buzzing around my front yard, just everywhere.

And our kids wouldn't go outside and play.

And it's really hard to look at like a four-year-old and be like, they're probably not gonna sting you, bud.

Just go out there, don't worry, you know?

That's not how it really works, right?

And my youngest Eli, God bless him, like, we have to carry an EpiPen with us because he is super allergic to stings and bug bites.

Like, if a mosquito bites him, he like swells up.

And so, you know, I'm like, I gotta get rid of these.

But I start looking up how to do it.

And one option is to pay a professional, right?

Which is probably the smart thing to do, but I'm like, no, this is my territory, this is my property, and I will defend it for my family.

And also the professional is pretty expensive.

So I go on YouTube and I'm like, YouTube teaches you anything you need to know.

So surely someone has had this, and I find this video, and I watch it, and Megan finds me watching this, she goes, Justin, surely you're not thinking of this.

And I go, it looks pretty viable to me.

And there was this dude, and and I'll let I'm gonna go this way with the camera because I know you guys be unpredictable.

There was just this video of the guy who had a racquetball racket, like a badminton racket, you know?

Badminton, that's what this is.

And he's just in his backyard just whacking these things.

And to be honest, it kind of looked fun.

And so for an entire month, I had a multiple time per day routine of going out into my yard with this.

And I and I got good at it.

Like the first few days, I almost threw my shoulder out of socket because it was like it was crazy.

But I got to where I'd come in the house, and and I mean, my wife, my poor wife, like, she's awesome.

But I come in the house all of a sudden, like, I got five.

I got five.

And I started keeping a tally.

I'm not I'm not exaggerating, I'm not lying, I killed over a hundred.

And so I'm coming in every day, like I got three more, and I got to where like I was efficient.

I'd see a few buzzing around, I'm like, I'll be right back.

She's like, Justin, please.

We have neighbors.

Like we live in a cul-de-sac.

And what I found, I found that there's a certain strategy, and it's that you've gotta like, you've gotta be like this.

You gotta be in a ready position.

Okay?

So you're sort of like, but you gotta move very slow.

So you see them, you find where they sort of hang out, and you move like this.

And and I learned that you don't need a backswing.

They're like, their middle sections are very small.

You hit them hard enough, they either get stuck in this or they just split in two.

Um, you don't, you don't, you don't have to rear back because that gives it away.

So you just sort of go here, and then there's just this flurry of like that.

You know, and sometimes you get them on the front, sometimes you get them on the back, and they're just going everywhere.

And you have to imagine what my neighbors think.

Like, because I do this multiple times a day, and then sometimes I'd even see one and I'd just wave, you know, like this.

And they there's no way from far away they can see the actual things I'm swinging at, right?

If you live 300 yards away, you can't see those.

You just see me out in my yard like an insane person.

Just like that.

Multiple times a day.

Is that isn't he a pastor?

Like, he is.

I think he thinks there's demons or something in his yard.

I don't know.

He's one of those pastors.

But I got good at it.

I killed over a hundred with this, this exact badminton racket.

This is the one.

And then I learned that not only do you have to kill them, because they just kept coming.

I mean, I would think, Megan, I think we're done.

Because I killed, you know, by the time I got to 50, I'm like, come on.

And then we went out of town for a week.

And I told Megan, when we get back, I'm gonna really find out how how well we've done.

And she's like, please stop talking about this thing.

It's you're obsessed with it.

I've heard about it every day.

And I don't know, but but when we get back, I think we're gonna be amazed.

Maybe there's one or two.

We get back, no, 20.

So I do more research.

I'm like, oh, you you can't just kill the ones that are flying around, you have to find their nests.

And so that doesn't really show up until mid to late summer.

They huge holes, huge holes in the ground, and I find a bunch of them.

And I read online what you're supposed to do is get ammonia and dilute it with water, and then pour that with a funnel into the hole so you don't kill your grass.

I learned that the hard way because I did kill some grass.

And uh, but it's fine.

And so, man, I I was like, I'm not messing around, I'm not gonna dilute the ammonia because I don't want any chance of these things coming back.

And so I'm finding holes all over our front yard.

And I'm excited.

I went through, I think, five gallons of ammonia over the course of the summer.

And I'm like double, I'm I don't know how many times I maybe one survived.

I'm not dealing with this this summer, so I'm just like pouring it in the next day, pouring more, and it goes great.

And so far, I've not seen one, but we're really gonna find out in a couple weeks.

But but then about a month ago, my wife comes to me and she she loves gardening.

My wife loves that.

She's really gotten into it, and so all of the plants in our yard really they're important to her.

And there's this tree in our front yard, and she's like, Have you noticed the tree in our front yard?

It is dead.

Like, dead, dead.

And I'm like, really?

Are you sure?

And I go out and it's it is dead.

And she said, Do you have any idea what could have done that?

And I was like, Yeah, I actually I might know why that tree is dead.

And I explained to her what I had done and how I hadn't really diluted the ammonia, and how I may have like used an excessive amount.

And then my next door neighbor, her name is Karen.

She's not a Karen, okay, it's just her name.

She has this gigantic tree.

I mean, it's it's 20 feet tall.

And the side close to her house is thriving, it is flourishing.

There are leaves, it's beautiful.

But the side closest to my yard is not doing so well.

Its branches are pretty bare.

And she's like, something is up with this tree.

And I was like, huh.

It's weird.

Our tree's dead too.

It's close to yours.

And I'm thinking of like how to tell her.

I really was.

I was like, I'm gonna be honest.

And she goes, Well, that's okay.

I was gonna have it removed anyway this summer because it's it's keeping all the grass growing from growing because it's too much shade.

And so I'm gonna take it, I was gonna take it down anyway.

And I was like, that sounds like a great idea.

That sounds awesome.

Let me know if you want me to chip in for that, you know, that kind of thing.

And I don't know beyond the shadow of a doubt that that was what was wrong with that tree.

Like, it can never be proven in a court of law.

It's fine.

She was gonna have it removed anyway.

But the point is this I conquered, I destroyed those cicada killers, it was a massacre.

And yes, there were some there were some innocent bystanders, there was some collateral damage, a few trees had to be sacrificed, but but hopefully, and we'll find out soon, those things are gone.

Silly as it is, I got really into conquering my front yard last summer.

Because there's something about the idea of something that shouldn't be there, and something menacing, and something dangerous potentially to one of your children that you just can't tolerate.

And so last summer, me and my deadly badminton racket went on a conquest, and we'll see if it was successful or not this summer.

As you read through the Old Testament, you read these stories of conquest.

And unfortunately, it's not it's not cicada killers, but uh but if you understand the reality of what's going on, it is dangerous foes.

And there's so many stories, and actually they're they're pretty amazing stories.

I have a bunch down, I don't know if we'll go through all of these.

Let's go ahead and jump.

Joshua has several stories of battles and fights and and all kinds of conquests of all these different tribes that are that are in the area.

But if we go forward to the book of Judges, Judges chapter four, Judges, the Israelites have have conquered because of Joshua and his success.

They've for the most part conquered the land that they live in, but not completely, and now they're having to defend it.

There's lots of battles coming their way, and sometimes they drift from God, they get a little complacent, they're like, we did it, God helped us great, but we don't really need him anymore, and they don't pay as much attention to God, and then God sort of reminds them, hey, you guys didn't really do that, I did.

You need me.

And he allows their enemies to gather in strength and fight against them.

And so that's where we're at when we get to Judges chapter 4.

Judges 4 · chapter mention

Deborah is the judge, she is the leader of the nation of Israel at this time.

It says, Deborah, the wife of Lapidath, was a prophet who was judging Israel at the time.

She would sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim.

And the Israelites would go to her for judgment.

One day she sent for Barak, the son of that guy, who lived in Kadesh in the land of Naphtali.

She said to him, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, commands you call out ten thousand warriors from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun to Mount Tabor.

And I will call out Siserah, the commander of Jaban's army, along with his chariots and warriors, to the Kishon River.

There I will give you victory over him.

Sisera was this military leader, and he was having a lot of success against Israel.

They're losing lives, their territory is in danger, and Deborah says, It's time for this to end.

And that's exactly what happens.

The battle is successful, just like Deborah says, she leads them to victory, and Sisera has to run for his life.

And so in Judges chapter 4, verse 17 through 21, it says, Sisera ran to the tent of Jael, the wife of Hebrew, the Kenite, because Heber's family was on friendly terms with King Jabin of Hazer.

Judges 4:17–21

Jael went out to meet Sisera and said, Come to my tent, sir, come in, don't be afraid.

So he went into her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.

Please give me some water, he said, I'm thirsty.

So she gave him some milk from a leather bag and covered him again.

Stand at the door of the tent, he told her.

If anyone comes and asks you if anyone is here, say no.

But when Sisera fell asleep from exhaustion, Jael quietly crept up to him with a hammer and tent peg in her hand, and then she drove the tent peg through his temple into the ground, and so he died, as I imagine you would in that scenario.

So, again, so much blood.

Thousands of soldiers dying, conquest happening left and right, and here's the commander of the army opposing Israel, thinking that he's safe.

And no, jail, this lady, this unassuming, like, oh, here's some milk.

You know, oh, just rest a little bit.

Don't mind the tent peg.

I'm just gonna I'm gonna set up this tent outside while you're sleeping.

It's my favorite thing.

And he's dead.

So much blood.

Judges chapter 6, verses 1 through 6.

Judges 6:1–6

It says, The Israelites did evil in the Lord's sight.

So the Lord handed them handed them over to the Midianites for seven years.

The Midianites were so cruel that the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds.

Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, marauders from Midian, Amalek, and the people of the East would attack Israel, camping in the land and destroying crops as far away as Gaza.

They left the Israelites with nothing to eat, taking all the sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys.

These enemy hordes, coming in with their livestock and tents, were as thick as locusts.

They arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count, and they stayed until the land was stripped bare.

So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites, and then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.

Practical bit of wisdom.

Don't wait until you're desperate to ask for God's help.

He loves you, he will help you far in advance.

But they waited.

They were so set against worshiping the Lord that they waited until they were desperate to ask for his help.

But he responds.

He responds, and he chooses this man, Gideon.

And Gideon's not from an important family.

Gideon's not a warrior.

In fact, when this angel shows up and says, Gideon, you're gonna lead the people of Israel against the Midianites, Gideon says, just like Moses, if you know that story, he says, Nope, wrong guy.

You've got the wrong guy.

And God's like, I promise I don't.

You're doing this, you really don't have much say in the matter.

And so Gideon becomes the leader of the people of Israel.

And God has this army gathered together because the Midianite army is huge.

And the Israelite army is not.

They have several thousand, but it's not good odds.

And then God says, hey, you know, actually, Gideon, I think you have too many soldiers.

And if you're Gideon, you're like, excuse me?

I mean, have you seen our enemy?

Do you say too many?

I thought you said too few.

That would make sense.

But he's like, no, you got too many.

And so there's this series of tests.

And he ends up whittling the army of Gideon down to 300 men.

Because God needs them to know you're not the ones doing this.

It's not in your strength that you're winning these battles.

It's me.

And that's not God showing off.

That's not God having bravado.

That's God reminding his people look, I know that when you're successful, you think it's you and you get haughty and you get prideful, and that just sets you up for failure because I promise you it's not you.

And if you would depend on me and rely on me, you'd be fine.

But if you think it's in your strength, you'll be destroyed.

So Gideon obeys.

And they come up with this interesting plan.

He takes his 300 men, he splits them into three groups, and they surround at night the camp of all the thousands upon thousands of soldiers they're going to have to fight against the next day.

And they each carry with them these jars and these lanterns that have light.

And we find out in uh Judges chapter 7, it says it was just after midnight, after the changing of the guard, when Gideon and the 100 men with him, again there's two other groups of a hundred, reached the edge of the Midianite camp, and suddenly they blew the ram's horns, they broke their clay jars, and then all the groups blew their horns and broke their jars, and they held these blazing torches in their left hands and the horns in their right hands, and they all shouted, A sword for the Lord and for Gideon.

Judges 7 · chapter mention

And each man stood at his position around the camp and watched as the Midianites rushed around in a panic, shouting as they ran to escape.

And when the three hundred Israelites blew their ram's horn, the Lord caused the warriors in the camps to fight against each other with their swords.

Those who were not killed fled to the places as far away as Bethshetah near Zare I can't even say that word.

To the border, you know what?

They ran away.

They ran to all kinds of different places.

And then Gideon sent for the warriors of Naphtali, Asher, and Manasseh, who joined in the chasing of the army of Midian.

Gideon also sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim saying, Come down to attack the Midianites, cut them off at the shallow crossings of the Jordan River at Beth Barra.

Now just imagine your Gideon's army, you're surrounding thousands of soldiers, you've got some jars, some torches, and horns.

Not exactly standard military issue, right, for a battle.

And you, it's middle of the night, you blow the horns, you throw the jars on the ground, you shout, there's the fire, and the Midianites all wake up in a stupor, and God causes them to be confused, and they all just stab each other to death.

And you watch that happen.

Like, wow.

And again, as a kid, I'm like, that's awesome.

And I still kind of think it's awesome.

But then also you're like, whoo, that's that's a lot of death.

Like the body count is growing.

By the time you get to this story and the other stories in the book of Judges, and then some of the stories of the battles in kings, I mean, you're you're talking about thousands upon thousands upon thousands of bodies just piling up as the Israelites are conquering their land and then defending it from those trying to conquer it from them.

It's messy stuff.

It's a lot of blood.

So what gives?

Again, how do we reconcile all of this?

And what I want us to understand, and I'll give you sort of the gist of it, and we're gonna circle back to this in a minute as we address some misconceptions.

And again, like I said, today's kind of big picture.

But it's important for us to understand these things.

Number one, we have to understand that evil is real, evil is serious, just like we talked last week, sin is serious.

Evil cannot be tolerated, evil cannot be appeased, evil must be opposed, and evil must be destroyed.

Now, the challenge is well, who gets to determine what is evil and what is not?

And the answer to that question, quite simply, is God.

God is the one who defines what is good and what is evil.

In fact, the very first struggle that we had as people, if you know the story of the Bible, is that we decided we'll choose what's good and evil for ourselves.

And that doesn't go so well.

So the ultimate idea that we have to understand, and we'll come back to this again, is that evil is is real, it is serious, it cannot be appeased, and it must be opposed and destroyed.

But before we really get heavy into that, I do want to address some misconceptions.

Because a lot of people will use stories like this, a lot of people who who are are maybe uh trying to poke holes in the legitimacy of our faith will use stories like this to essentially say that if you follow Jesus, that means that you're endorsing this.

That you think this is good.

And that's not true at all.

And I think it's important that we understand some contextual things going on.

Like honestly, if someone ever came to me, and and this kind of stuff happened to me a lot when I was in college, I'm kind of one of those people who talks before I think.

Anyone else like that at all?

Any other, yeah.

Or at the very least, I talk as fast as I think, which gets you into a lot of trouble.

Like a lot of trouble.

I'm getting better.

In fact, over the years I've gotten to where I actually think a lot without talking, which is cool.

But in my younger years, not so much the case.

And so I had classes at my college, it was not a, it wasn't like a Christian college, it wasn't a seminary.

And uh and I had these professors, and they I don't know why, but almost every class I would have, even if it was not not related to faith, religion at all, the professors would very often end up attacking Christianity.

And uh, and I'm the kind that would sort of like engage with that.

They have doctorates and PhDs.

I'm 18 years old with a high school diploma.

But I would find myself just being like, uh-uh.

And they'd be like, explain.

I'm like, well, I can't.

But then I go back to my room and I'd research and I'd read and I'd come back and be like, hey, what about this and this and this?

And they we'd have this going on.

And I actually had a professor one time tell me he was gonna remove me from his class if I didn't stop.

And I was, but it amazed me how like, why?

This is a communication class.

Why are we talking about this?

And what I found, and this is just the reality of it, there are there are a lot of people who, for whatever reason, enjoy engaging in this sort of intellectual exercise where you can sort of disprove the legitimacy of God ultimately, the legitimacy, definitely the legitimacy of the Bible, legitimacy of the Bible.

I'm having a hard time talking today.

And they would do it by pointing to a lot of stories like this.

Now, today I'd have a very different approach.

Because I've just learned stuff.

And I've wrestled with these things for years, and so I've I'm I'm okay with it.

You know, if if if I was in that same class that I was in years ago, and that professor, Dr.

Harris, if Dr.

Harris had said, Oh, so you believe the Bible?

Well, that means that you endorse this and this and this and this, and she rattled off a lot of things.

What I would say to her today, I would say something like, Well, do you have an Android or an iPhone?

And I don't know what she would pick.

Let's say she says iPhone.

I say, okay, cool.

Well, that iPhone was manufactured in a foreign country by people who are incredibly oppressed and in horrific conditions, and you are much more directly tied to those oppressive actions than I am tied to things that you say were oppressive 3,000 years ago in a context that you don't even begin to understand.

So before we talk about that, let's talk about your iPhone.

That's what I would say in my head.

I wouldn't say that out loud.

Um, because now I think before I speak.

But the point is, a lot of those arguments are intellectually dishonest.

But once I had the whole uh sarcastic in-your-face response in my head, what would come out of my mouth would say, hey, it's it's probably a lot more nuanced than you understand or that I understand.

Would you like to have a nuanced conversation about it?

And most people you will find will say, no.

Then I don't want to have any conversation about it.

Because these are nuanced things and they're important for us to understand.

So let's let's talk for a second about some of the nuances that help us reconcile these ideas.

Number one, let's let's have a short conversation about the sovereignty of God.

God is God, He's God, and He's God overall.

And God is, and this is where it gets hard sometimes.

The sovereignty of God means that God has the ultimate say, even in matters of life and death.

And I'm okay with that.

I'm okay with that.

Because who else should have the say?

Who else should have the say?

I didn't decide to be born.

I never chose to be born when I was, where I was.

That was God's decision.

He had that say.

And and he actually has the say and the authority to determine when my life ends and how it ends.

And I bet if he showed me, I'd be like, let's discuss that, Lord.

Let's work out a few extra years.

Or how about that?

You know what I'm saying?

But the older I get, the more I've just realized I'm okay with the sovereignty of God.

I really am.

I'm okay with putting my faith in a God who understands things better than I do.

And especially of matters of life and death, I'm okay with a God who can make a call that maybe I wouldn't be able to make.

Because the tendency for human beings when we read stories like this is to kind of go, God, I think you're overreacting.

I think there was maybe a more peaceful way to handle that.

I think there's maybe a better way to do it.

But as we've talked about, our tendency as people is almost always to underestimate evil.

And God never does.

Again, we'll we'll come back to that.

I'm okay with the sovereignty of God.

I also recognize that when we look at these stories, we're talking about, guys, this is 3,000 plus years ago.

When I have conversations about this with people, I'll talk about the idea of barbarians.

You might say that this stuff is barbaric.

No, no, no, the barbarians were much more advanced than these people.

The barbarians were 2,000 years ago.

So just add another millennia, and the barbarians would have looked at these people and been like, well, they are not very civilized at all.

See, it's very easy from our vantage point and our culture today to look back at these cultures and the ways that they operated and how violent and how intense, and to kind of judge it and say they were really doing it wrong.

That's easy for us to do.

But it's a little bit disingenuous.

Because the fact that we live in a world that's relatively safe and peaceful is in large part because we live in a world that's like this because of many battles and a lot of bloodshed that happened before us that laid the groundwork for all of this to be peaceful and relatively safe.

And so we can stand on our soapbox and look back at this and say, hey, this is bad, but that's not it's not entirely genuine for us to do that.

It's not intellectually honest because it's it's messier than that.

All of history is messier than that.

And God has this tendency of meeting people where they are.

And so when he meets the people in the Old Testament, when he engages with them, he's engaging with like pre-barbaric people.

And he engages with them in more intense ways because that's the way their world worked.

And I'm I'm okay with that.

I'm not saying you have to be.

I'm saying as I've gone over the years and explored this stuff, I'm I'm okay with that.

I can live with the idea of a sovereign God who engages people where they're at, and when he's dealing with people that are at this point in history and this point of cultural development, it's just they're speaking a different language.

But it's even more nuanced than that.

There's all kinds of details that we don't often think about.

So, for example, let's talk about like military ideas.

When we read the story of Jericho, for example, like you think about this city, and this idea of the walls coming down, and then they all go in and they rush in and they kill them all, and you think, oh my gosh, you're thinking about like these people in their homes and all this.

No, no, no.

Jericho was a military fortress.

It's a military fortress.

Think about it this way.

We go back to Joshua chapter 6.

Joshua 6 · chapter mention

It says, on the seventh day, the Israelites got up and they marched around the town as they had done before, but this time they went around the town seven times.

Think about marching around your city seven times in a day.

Like how how big is that?

Right?

It's small.

Like you couldn't march around, you couldn't march around Cherokee County.

Number one, Cherokee County is enormous.

Let's just say that.

Like I live in Cherokee County and I have a 40-minute drive here.

It's the same county.

So that maybe is a bad example.

But Atlanta actually isn't that large of a city in terms of square footage.

Could you march around Atlanta seven times in a day?

I don't know the answer to that.

I should have researched it.

I don't think so, though.

I don't think so.

No, no, Jericho historically was a military fortress.

And so this is war.

And it's a very different thing to attack a fortress and like lay waste to it than it is to attack just some random town.

But when we read that, we don't know all those cultural details.

We think that this is just, you know, Jericho, this city, and all these people live there, and and boom, there the Israelites are, and it's bloodshed.

And that's not quite the full story.

Not at all.

In fact, there's only three places that God tells the Israelites to go in and completely destroy.

Only three places.

And they were all military fortress cities.

Not these populated, you know, places where people lived full of residences.

That's not what's going on.

But we don't know those details, right?

So it's a little bit more nuanced than that.

Also, the people of Israel were instructed by God to offer terms of peace with every group that they encountered before there were any attacks.

Okay?

We see this, for example, in Deuteronomy chapter 20.

Deuteronomy 20 · chapter mention

Verse 10 says, As you approach a town to attack it, you must first offer its people terms for peace.

That's the first thing you're supposed to do.

So God tells them, hey, the thing I would desire most is peace.

So as you go in, offer terms of peace.

And what you find is that the Israelites do that, and these nations aren't interested in peace.

They want destruction, they want war.

So again, there's some nuance there.

It's also important to remember, and this is this is huge, this is hard for a lot of people to understand, that you read the story, and because they're so successful, you think the Israelites are like the bullies, and these people are just these poor souls that are living there and they're in the wrong place at the wrong time.

No, no, no, no.

The Israelites, they're the underdogs.

These were people who had been slaves for generations.

They are oppressed people.

And these nations that they're coming against, they are they're the big dogs.

These are the oppressors.

And if you study the history of these groups of people, you find that it's it's atrocious.

We are talking about warmongering, oppressive groups, like, and we'll get into that in a second, just in ways you can't even imagine.

So it's not that the Israelites are these sort of big, bad bullies coming into the land picking on the little guys.

It's the opposite.

They're the little guys, they're the underdogs, and and these other nations, they're so much more powerful.

So again, there's a little bit of nuance.

There's all of these little details that come together to paint a little bit different of a picture than just God saying, hey, just go and wipe these people out and don't pay any attention to who they are or what they've done or you know who's in front of just go, just kill them all.

That's not the story.

And I'm not trying to say that there's not violence or bloodshed and that it's not hard.

I'm not.

I'm just saying that it's often more nuanced than we think.

In fact, I read this quote.

This is from a really cool website called the Bible Project, from a blog post that they had on this.

Here's what it says The author's name is Andy Patton.

He said, most readers imagine that God commissioned his nation to vengefully wipe out an entire nation of Canaanite men, women, and children.

However, a deeper reading reveals that the reasons for the conquest were more complex, the scope of the destruction was smaller, and God's mercy was present throughout.

And again, I'm not saying, oh, it's all neat and tidy, and here it's easy.

No, no, no, it's it's hard.

The so much blood stuff is hard, but it is more nuanced, and there's more details than we often know.

And what we find is that if we study those things and we understand it, it becomes a little bit easier to deal with, at least for me.

One other little piece, and I think this is important.

Sometimes we read interesting things where it will say that, and they wiped out every man, woman, and child.

Have you ever read that in these stories?

That language?

If not, you're like, I didn't know that was in there.

Thanks for telling me.

You've ruined my life.

No.

Like it says, and then they went and they wiped out every man, woman, and child.

I'm like, whoa, that's a little bit, whoo.

The children?

Well, let me give you an example of something interesting.

Joshua chapter 10, verses 36 and 37.

Joshua 10:36

It says, From Eglon, Joshua and the Israelite army went up to Hebron and attacked it.

They captured the town and killed everyone in it, including its king, leaving no survivors.

They did the same, the very same thing to all of its surrounding villages, and just as he had done at Eglon, he completely destroyed the entire population.

Like, okay?

Wow.

But then in Joshua 15, just a few chapters later, it says the Lord commanded Joshua to assign some of Judah's territory to Caleb.

So Caleb was given the town of Kariath Arba, that is Hebron, same place.

Same place it said in Joshua 10 that the entire population was destroyed.

Which had been named after Anak's ancestor.

Caleb drove out the three groups of Anakites, the descendants of these other people, from that place.

If you're like, is he skipping all the hard names?

Correct.

I guess I do skip the hard stuff sometimes.

I'm sorry, I just realized how I said I don't skip the hard stuff unless it's a hard-to-pronounce word.

And then that's a different thing.

But well, it's said that the entire population was wiped out, and now just a few chapters later, he sends Caleb there, and Caleb has to drive out these people, which by the way is the main language of Joshua and Judges.

It's not kill, it's drive out.

It's drive out.

So what gives, I thought the whole the whole population was destroyed.

And what you have to realize is when you read these stories, you're reading literature.

And just like we have idioms, we have sayings in our world that sort of exaggerate things, they were the same way.

There's been a lot of a lot written about this.

You can read about it if you want to.

It's kind of nerd stuff, but but we say things all the time that don't mean exactly what we say.

Especially like in sports.

Like if you're a sports person, you've probably said, like, how'd the game go say?

Oh, we crushed them.

We compl well, we we destroyed them.

And if someone had no context for sports, they didn't know what happened, they would think, oh my goodness.

Those poor people.

And what they would find is like, what does that mean?

Oh, no, we beat them by like 25 points.

Oh, so they're alive and fine?

Correct.

Right?

We have all kinds of sayings.

Like, if you ever tell someone, I want you to search every nook and cranny.

Leave no stone unturned.

You don't mean that you want them to search every nook and cranny.

I'm gonna be honest, I don't even know what a cranny is.

Does anyone know?

Does anyone know what a cranny is?

I if I told you go to the nearest cranny, could you find it?

I think I know what a nook is, but honestly, I'm not even sure.

But you wouldn't actually expect someone to go pick up every rock, every stone, turn it over, make sure what are you saying?

Be thorough.

We have all these sayings in our language, and we know that they don't mean exactly what they say.

It's a figure of speech that's meant to express an idea.

The Bible is full of those.

It's not lying to you, but as you study the history, as you go deep with it, you find that the people of Israel have those same types of sayings.

And so very often you'll see them saying, And every man, woman, and child, and it doesn't actually mean every man, woman, and child, because just a few chapters later there's still men, women, and children.

What it's saying is that we we wiped them out.

We beat them.

It was decisive.

It was an overwhelming victory, and they have idioms and figures of speech.

It's like ancient battle trash talk in the Bible.

Again, I'm not saying it's all neat and tidy and there's nothing to deal with.

I'm just saying that it's a deeper, more nuanced conversation.

And I love that quote that I actually want to read it again from Andy Patton.

Most readers imagine that God commissioned his nation to vengefully wipe out an entire nation of Canaanite men, women, and children.

However, a deeper reading reveals that the reasons for the conquest were more complex, the scope of destruction was smaller, and God's mercy was present throughout.

That tracks for me, and I like that.

Now, I do know the time.

And you guys have been, by the way, you guys have been troopers.

Going through the Bible in an entire year, like, just know that the stuff coming up is like, I'm so excited about it.

These are the hardest parts to deal with, and they're really early in the process, and you guys have been amazing.

But here's the main point that I want to get to.

This is the big picture.

I said earlier we've gone through a lot of details, a lot of nuances, but here's the big picture, and it's so important for us to know this.

In fact, if you have tuned out for the last 10 minutes because I was talking about a lot of stuff that you don't care about, I get it.

Thanks for pretending to pay attention because you all had me fooled.

Um, but this is the big picture, and here's what it is ultimately: God opposes evil.

Deuteronomy chapter 9, verse 5.

Deuteronomy 9:5

God tells the people before they go on this conquest it is not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy their land.

The Lord your God will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness.

And to fulfill the oath he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God is saying, look, it's not because you're so good, it's because the level of evil that is taking place in these cultures has risen to such a degree that it has to be destroyed.

Actually, centuries before, Abraham was in the same area in Genesis 15 16.

God's talking to Abraham.

He says, After four generations, your descendants will return here to this land, which is exactly What Joshua and his people do.

He says, but not right now, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.

And we read that and we go, I don't know what the sins of the Amorites were.

What I can tell you is if you study these ancient cultures, you would be, guys, it's just know that child sacrifice is one of the major components of their worship.

And that's what was happening in Abraham's time, and God says even then that the level of evil, the level of wickedness has not yet risen to the point that it needs to be destroyed.

There's this patience with God that doesn't make sense to me.

But God opposes evil.

And sometimes there's a level of evil that grows to such a point where God has to say, it's gotta go.

It has to go.

And unfortunately, that's often very messy and very bloody, but it's it's true.

And I think deep down inside we we understand that.

Now, this is like a classic example, and I don't want to use it because it's obvious, but it's the best example I think all of us can relate to.

Think about Nazi Germany.

Think about Nazi Germany during World War II.

It's one of my favorite periods of history to study.

I love history.

And any of you guys familiar with uh with who the prime minister of Great Britain was during World War II, the majority of it.

You guys know who that was?

Someone yell it out.

Churchill, yeah.

I like Winston Churchill.

He's an interesting guy.

I know that like he probably said things and did things that are bad today, but whatever.

He's dead.

I don't, it's fine.

I didn't say it, he did.

Churchill was a funny dude, very witty.

In fact, there's one of my favorite lines ever that he said was uh he was in Parliament, and there was this woman that told him, yelled out, if you've ever seen British Parliament, it's intense, and she's like, if you were my husband, I'd put arsenic in your tea.

And he responded, if you were my wife, I would drink it.

And so, like Churchill was a fighter.

Churchill was a fighter.

He had a lot of flaws, but that man was uniquely wired to fight against Hitler's Germany.

Uniquely wired, wouldn't back down from anything.

Now, a lot of people said, Churchill, does anyone know who the Prime Minister of Great Britain was before Churchill in the early days of World War II?

Chamberlain, smaller number of people, right?

Not as famous.

And here's why.

Chamberlain's approach with Hitler was far different than Churchill's.

Churchill said we have to fight them, we have to stop them.

Chamberlain, and understandably, because they weren't that far from World War I and no one wanted war again, Chamberlain said maybe we can appease them.

That was Chamberlain's strategy with Hitler.

Let's appease him.

So Chamberlain had many meetings with Hitler and basically said, Look, Adolf, if we let you take over this territory, will you stop there?

And Hitler would say, Yes.

And they said, okay.

And so they allowed Hitler to take territory without anyone fighting back.

These other places that he was capturing, they would say, please help.

And they would say, No, no, no, we're gonna let him take it because he's promised us that he will stop.

Evil never stops.

Evil is never is never satisfied.

You cannot appease evil.

It has to be stopped.

It has to be fought against.

It has to be destroyed.

And you know, it's funny because I know a lot of people who will read these stories in the Old Testament be like, man, I really think that God really overreacted.

I've never met someone who, when asked about Nazi Germany, says, you know, I really think we overreacted to Nazi Germany.

I think we should have just talked with them.

Or, you know, no, you recognize when you know the history, you know about the concentration camps and the level of persecution and evil that went on there.

You're like, yeah, that had to be stopped.

And many people lost their lives for that on both sides, but but history would look back and say it was it was a worthy price because that could not be allowed to grow.

God opposes evil, and ultimately what he says is these nations that are fighting against.

It's not like he just likes the Israelites and these people are at the wrong place at the wrong time.

He says, No, these nations, these cultures have risen to a level of evil that God cannot tolerate, and that is so important for us to understand the big picture.

Because we've all had at times in our lives, and if you haven't, you might have this happen.

I hope it doesn't happen, but it probably will.

Your life will be affected by evil.

There is evil in this world.

And many of you have experienced it.

And I have sat with families who have had loved ones tragically taken away from them because of acts of evil.

And I've seen the pain and devastation that that causes.

Because if he tolerated evil, he wouldn't be good.

And it's so important for us to know that our God does not appease evil.

Because if he appeased evil, he wouldn't be good.

And so, big picture, just like last week we said big picture, we have to understand that sin is serious and it must be dealt with and it must be atoned for.

Evil is real, and it cannot be appeased, and it must be opposed, and our God is so good that he will fight evil.

And it is vital for us to know that and understand that about God, because one day when evil affects you, you can know that God will oppose that.

In fact, at this time, and this is a little bit odd.

We're gonna wrap up.

Worship team, you guys can make your way out.

But we're gonna take Lord's Supper right now, and I got a few things to say after we take Lord's Supper.

And by the way, if you're new, we we do this every week, usually right at the end of the message.

Sometimes we mix it up.

There's bread and juice in the back, but I want to take this like 95% through the message, just to give you a I'm looking at the clock, I know.

95% there.

Every week we take this little meal, and the bread represents the body of Jesus, and the blood represents or the uh the the juice represents not blood, the juice represents his blood.

When Jesus died on the cross, he said, It is finished.

It is finished.

And he breathed his last breath and he surrendered his spirit.

That's what the Bible says.

So, what was he finished with?

When he died on the cross, what was he finished with?

He was finished dealing with sin in our lives.

And we talked about this last week.

He became a sacrifice for us.

All those sacrifices in the Old Testament were just paving the way, painting a picture, helping to foreshadow the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus.

When he died on the cross, he said it is finished, which means that if you have given your life to Jesus, if you've surrendered your life to him, your sin has been dealt with completely and totally.

You don't have to, sometimes we have to deal with the consequences of our sin.

But as far as it stands between us and God, your sin has been utterly, completely dealt with.

Jesus said, It is finished.

And so let's let's take a moment, let's thank him for that, and then we'll continue for there.

And we're gonna do this all at one time today.

So, Father, we thank you for this piece of bread and this cup of juice and what it all represents.

Your body broken on the cross and your blood spilled as an atoning sacrifice for our sin.

And because of what you did, Jesus, when we put our faith in you, we know and trust that you have completely once and for all time dealt with our sin and it is finished, and we don't have to worry for a moment that our sin gets in the way of your love.

Thank you for that, Jesus.

Let's take the bread and drink the juice.

The reason I wanted to do that there and focus on it is because when Jesus says it is finished, he's talking about our sin in terms of our relationship with him, but he's not finished, finished with the world.

Because if you continue reading, it's clear that Jesus says he will return.

And Revelation talks about that, we'll get to that at the very end of the year, but Revelation chapter 17, verse 14.

Revelation 17:14

It talks about the forces of evil coming against Jesus in the end times, and whatever that looks, however that means.

And it says, They will make war on the Lamb, Jesus being the Lamb of God, and the Lamb will conquer them.

For he is the Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called chosen and faithful.

See, the reason Jesus returns in part is because while he is finished dealing with our sin, he is not finished dealing with evil.

And one day he will return, and he will once and for all conquer evil itself.

Just like he conquered sin and death, he will conquer evil.

Our God opposes evil, he opposes it, he'll never appease it, he won't tolerate it, he opposes it, and that is a good thing.

And we can live with hope that one day Jesus will come.

When you look at the world and you see evil and it breaks your heart, and you wonder how in the world can this exist?

Just know that God is not done dealing with it.

And he will return and he will oppose it once and for all, and there will be a day when there's no more evil at all.

Zero, gone, dealt with completely.

He will be able to say it is finished, just like he said it is finished regarding our sin on the cross.

And we live with hope toward that.

And in the meantime, what do we do?

As we live in a world that's affected by evil.

We have a God that opposes it, but we still live in it.

What do we do?

Romans chapter 12, and we'll wrap up with this.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Verses 9 through 21 says, Don't just pretend to love others, really love them.

Hate what is wrong.

Hate what is wrong.

Hold tightly to what is good.

By the way, it says, hate what is wrong, not hate who is wrong.

That's important.

Hold tightly to what is good.

Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other.

Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.

Rejoice in our confident hope.

Be patient in trouble and keep on praying.

When God's people are in need, be ready to help them.

Always be eager to practice hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you.

Don't curse them.

Pray that God will bless them.

Be happy with those who are happy and weep with those who weep.

Live in harmony with each other.

Don't be proud, too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people.

And don't think you know it all.

Never pay back evil with more evil.

Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable.

Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.

Dear friends, never take revenge.

Leave that to the righteous anger of God.

For the scriptures say, I will take revenge, says the Lord.

I will pay them back.

Instead, if your enemies are hungry, feed them.

If they're thirsty, give them something to drink.

In doing this, you will keep burning coals of shame on their heads.

And this is key.

Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.

Our God opposes evil.

When you read the stories in the Old Testament, there's all this blood and there's all this violence, and you go, why, why, why?

It's because God opposes evil.

Because He has to, because that's what you have to do with evil.

And unfortunately, it's messy and bloody sometimes.

But our God is good.

And a day is coming when Jesus will return and he will conquer evil once and for all.

And in the meantime, we live these lives and we're called to live lives that are about peace and love.

We're living lives of generosity, and we're told not to let evil which still exists in our world conquer us.

But instead, we're now called to conquer evil.

How?

By doing good.

And so if there's evil coming against you right now, if there's anything in your life, anything going on that you can say, you know what?

Let's just call it what it is.

That's evil.

That's wrong.

That's unjust.

That's unfair.

That's not right.

That shouldn't happen.

That's not the way it ought to be.

That's okay.

You can actually call that what it is and admit it, that's evil, but I'm gonna conquer evil in my life because I'm gonna do what's right.

I'm gonna do what's good.

Because I belong to the Lord, and that's what He's called me to do.

So day by day, day by day, we conquer evil by doing good.

And we just wait patiently and longingly for the day when Jesus returns and conquers it once and for all, and we live with hope for that.

And that's the ultimate takeaway of so much of the bloodshed in the Bible is that God fights against evil.

And he fights on your behalf, and one day it will be finished once and for all.

Let's pray again.

Father, thank you for this day and for these amazing people.

And Jesus, we do thank you that you oppose evil.

We love you so much.

And Lord, I've just realized that I forgot to communicate the timing of the people getting baptized to get into the tank, and they've been sitting in there for a while.

And I really hope that the water is warm.

But ultimately, Lord, we love you.

We're grateful, so grateful for your love, your holiness, your goodness, and we are grateful that you are a God who opposes what is evil.

Thank you, because we need that.

We need you.

And Jesus, please come back soon.

Amen.